iCade support comes to more games, implementation only takes “hours”

The developer of Sideways Racing says adding iCade support to his game only …

We were told that more games would be released that support the iCade, ThinkGeek's iPad peripheral that turns your tablet into a small arcade machine, but we didn't know much about what it takes to support the physical controls. We do now: Marc Edwards is the director and lead designer of Sideways Racing, and he contacted us to talk about adding support for the peripheral.

According to Edwards, the process is simple, and the tools are easy to use. Let's take a look at the game in action.

"We loved the concept of the iCade and felt our controls would be well suited to a hardware joystick," Edwards told Ars. "It also seemed like an incredibly convenient excuse to order a few iCades. You know, for 'research.'"

He was afraid that the bluetooth controls would introduce issues with latency, but he describes the iCade as being very responsive in practice. He had already coded a button-based control mechanism, so porting that over to the iCade was a simple process. He used Stuart Carnie's unofficial SDK on Github for some of the project.

"If anyone's looking to add support, it should be possible in a matter of hours, assuming the game is already suitable for a hardware joystick," he explained.

Sideways Racing

There are some tradeoffs to using the iCade to control the game. On the plus side, "the tactile feedback from using an actual joystick and bashable buttons is great. There's no risk you'll hit the wrong button, which can be an issue for virtual controls," he said. "You're also able to see the entire screen, without your mitts obscuring important details—although we did our best to keep everything critical out of the bottom corners of the screen."

On the other hand, virtual controls allow for gradual steering, instead of the digital controls of the iCade. Edwards said he still hasn't been able to beat his best times with the iCade. Using the physical controls also kills portability, so this isn't something you'll be playing on your commute.

Still, he walked away a fan of the hardware and the controls. "I really hope more developers add iCade support to their games," he told Ars. We agree, and can't wait to try this out once the patch is released.